New Nai

Have you been to the upper hill side of Nairobi lately? you will mistake it for a completely different country. There are very beautiful architectural masterpieces all over. all those old govt and railway houses have given way to really modern and sweet looking commercial estates. only worry one has is whether the services that were meant for residential estates would be able to support these buildings or whether the city council is doing anything to improve the state of the facilities. The Kenya bankers sacco building is really a big surprise. its true as wahenga say, 'ukistajabu ya musa utayaona ya firauni!' i marveled at the stima sacco building in ngara only for me to be blown out totally by the kenbankers sacco. A tangible investment and another reason for you to shun pyramid and go for sacco instead (in support of the minister) (by the way ati that posta building at the center of the city was put up by the sacco?)

Standard investment bank has moved to really tasty offices at the center of the city. when you go in and see the number of tellers as well as customer service reps, and the activity then you get an idea of the current economic activity in the country. even the seats at the waiting area are quite cosy and each teller has a spare seat for the investors. Kudos! however the bank has still refused to set up a website at least to manage some of the information.

And when at the bank, if you inquire about stanbic bank shares, they gently remind you that kenya is way ahead of Uganda and thats why you need to be patient when dealing with the stanbic shares. apart from working only 3 days a week, they take 4 weeks to verify the certificate and so on. i think it feels good to be better than somebody at least!

But the bank did well last year and returned some decent quid to shareholders only that , again thanks to the distance between kenya and uganda, the dividends will be eaten up by the strong shilling. When we were buying it was about 24 to the Kenyan currency, now its 25.25 and rising!